The Bell Tolls

No  man is an island entire of itself; every man 
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine 
own were; any man's death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in mankind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom 
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

John Donne

A good friend of mine posted on facebook last night:

Heavenly father, I grieve at the loss of one whom you miss most. May Your will be done, but I will not, I refuse, to celebrate the death of anyone at the hands of another man, no matter how vile their deeds. Let Your judgement reign, not mine. Forgive us.

I have to say that he hit on feelings I was having as well.  I have a curious mix of emotions, because i do admit to feelings of celebration at the killing of this man, we as a country have suffered greatly at his hands.  Yet I also remember that he is a demon of our own making.Billions of dollars of support to the mujaheddin and CIA sabotage training helped create the basis for al Qaeda.

I pray for our troops, who will all but certainly be the target of reprisals by his fanatical followers.  And while his death is a blow to their cause, I am sure that it will not end it.  Other leaders will be more than willing to step into his shoes, and one has to wonder just how much he had been in charge these past years anyway.  I have to think that his death now, some 10 years later is mostly symbolic, and will have no real impact on the infrastructure of his organization.

I applaud the US in disposing of his body at sea, and doing so in less than 24 hours as Islamic law dictates.  He will have no grave around which this followers can rally.

I also am glad that President Obama is at the helm for this event:  he more than anyone can help start the healing process that needs to take place now that we have achieved closure, and perhaps take some steps towards peace.

"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King, Jr

Shell Game?

In keeping with the spirit of this blog, i was thinking about Donald Trump and my anger and outrage over his statements and actions over the past few weeks.

Anger, that just like with Clinton the Republicans just can't seem to be able to accept that Mr. Obama IS the president of the United States. Duly elected by a majority of the people in the country (in much the same way that W was NOT).

Outrage, that it has not been demanded of any other President that they show their birth certificate, or college transcripts. God, I'd have LOVED to see W's!!! Meanwhile, Obama graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard....wonder how thy faked that.

Disgust that he is so proud of himself...that he believes he forced the president to do "show hos papers" and that of course we must verify the authenticity of these documents.

Then I realized that Trump is really not unique....there are LOTS of people in America that make statements and ask questions like he does. The difference here is that these other's are usually found on street corners wearing aluminum foil hats or walking the streets of any major American city pushing a shopping cart full of cans muttering about Socialism.

The difference is that we are giving Trump a forum to make his insane viewpoints public. It take two to pull these things off: A lunatic, and someone willing to listen! Why on EARTH do we even care what he thinks, let alone allow him to sidetrack the political debate like he has?

That's when I started to wonder if that isn't the whole idea here. It reminds me of the two man pickpocket teams. One that distracts the mark by bumping into him or, makes a public scene like faking an injury; and the other to pick the mark's pocket while distracted? If Trump is the distraction, who is picking our pocket? Could it be people like Walker of Wisconsin? or Christie of New Jersey? or Brewer of Arizona?

Parade the clown with the funny hair in front of the cameras and microphones so the spotlight can be taken off the people making the direct assaults against the poor and middle class? Shift the anger, disgust and outrage of Americans from coming together to stop these people and focus it instead on this sideshow barker.  After all, America has the attention span of a five year old with ADHD locked in a candy store.

Best advice: Ignore this loser and focus on what is important!

Blog Name

Thought I'd start out easy and explain the name of the Blog. False Echoes is the name of one of my favorite Jimmy Buffet songs, found on his Banana Winds album. James Taylor joins him on this song with beautiful harmonies on the chorus. Its one of his most beautiful and melodic pieces and is in fact a tribute to his father, who at the time was suffering from Alzheimer's. You won't hear it on Top 40 radio, and I don't think it sneaks into his concerts very often if at all. The term False Echoes suggests the "hits" on a radar screen of things that aren't there, and the phrase from the song "He waltzes on memories while he fades like a flare" seems to be about as poetic a description for the awful disease as can be imagined.

At any rate, False Echoes also brings to mind a lot of what I feel about the world at present. The political state of America especially seems to spend a lot of time inventing False Echoes for the media and the public to chase.

Finally, False Echoes is personal. As it applies to me, it means this blog will have opinions which are in many ways False Echoes themselves. They can lead us into dangerous waters if we don't take the time to step back once in a while and say "Do I REALLY believe that???" While it would be great for someone to actually READ what i'm going to write, i think this is mostly for me. A place to examine the echoes on my radar screen, and hopefully to get other radar sets (that's you!) to confirm or deny my readings.

So, for all the reasons above, and as not to be a total thief of Jimmy, I named this Blog Fox Echoes.